Making a myth box without spending a dime

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kleptophobiac

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 24, 2001
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Well, I went running through the junk bin, and I have been able to throw together a computer

1.4ghz tbird
gigabyte kt266 board
128MB pc2100 (I have 512 PC2700 somewhere....)
radeon 8500lele
studio dc10plus capture card (no tuner)
netgear fa311
40gb ibm deathstar

Anyway, this is going to be a proof of concept box before I invest in a real HTPC. I need to be able to do something goofy with it; instead of having a real tuner, could I just use my otherwise worthless cable box? It is a motorola unit with a serial port on the back. Is there a simple way to test if the interface works?

I just finished installing arch linux, now I just need to get everything else set up (I'll do it tomorrow after school)

Any advice for me on getting this hodgepodge setup going?
 
kleptophobiac said:
1.4ghz tbird
gigabyte kt266 board
128MB pc2100 (I have 512 PC2700 somewhere....)
radeon 8500lele
studio dc10plus capture card (no tuner)
netgear fa311
40gb ibm deathstar
Click to expand...
You'll probabably want to find that 512 stick, and I don't know if that capture card will work. Otherwise it sounds ok. Pick up a PVR250 or PVR350 to use as a tuner. They're great with linux.
 
without spending a dime? i would say no

the ram isnt enough.. needs to be minimum 256 or you will swap like crazy.. and you dont list a soundcard.. without sound myth wont start at all.. the tv card has no tuner? then you wouldnt be able to actually watch tv.. unless you fed it svideo from your cable box.. not sure the card would be supported either..

your best bet would be to install knoppmyth www.mysettopbox.tv and let it find all your hardware..
 
that via board might not be good for you. linux and via don't play nice.
 
Hah, I did in fact do it without spending any money.

I used the mjpeg drivers for the dc10 card (they suck) and my external cable box for a tuner. Sorry I didn't mention sound, I have an onboard CT5580 and an audigy value. I found my PC2700, and now it all works. Seems myth works great. This KT266 (non a) board also sucks, but it seems to be fine. I'm not having any issues in linux.

I wouldn't run knoppix (any derivative) on an hdd install anywhere. I prefer arch. After recompiling qt in order to have the mysql plugin, and compiling myth, everything was peaches and cream. Yay, this was done completely with crap out of the basement.

I stole most of the parts from other working computers, but this does work. Now that I have myself convinced that myth rocks, it is time to amass real parts.

Here's what I am looking at for a "final" myth box:

Athlon XP 1800+
DFI NFII Infinity (or NF7-S.... whichever, will use onboard audio)
PAL8045 HS
1x 512MB Kingston PC3200
WD1200JB (plus 500GB in the file server)
Voodoo3 3000 AGP or ATI Rage IIc AGP
PVR 350 (primary tuner, will use fb out)
PVR 250MCE or E-Home Wonder (secondary tuner)
Coolermaster case (that one with the 300w PSU that's $105... can't remember the name)
NEC 2510A DL DVD+/-RW
Mitsumi USB card reader/floppy (in 3.5" bay)

Of that, I won't need to buy the HSF, the CPU, the HDD, or the VC. Everything there should be fully linux happy. I'm kinda sad though... I lost one of the WD1200JB's... I just don't know where it is. :(
 
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